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Women's Movement In The 1960s

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The Women’s Movement The Women’s movement in the 1960s or the “Second wave of feminism” stemmed from every women’s limitations in almost every aspect of life. After the first wave feminism which focussed solely on gaining women’s suffrage, the second wave moved on to different every day discriminations. From family to work, a woman lived by her expectations. She was to marry in her early 20s, so that she could start a family early and devote her life to being a housewife, no chance at a career, that was considered a mans job. It was rare for an American woman living in this era to be in the workforce, and those that did work were very limited as to the jobs they could do, whether they be a teacher, nurse or office assistant/secretary. …show more content…

The feminist movement was not led by any particular figure and was completely non-hierarchal, and was run as a collective. Although there were no specific leaders, there were key figures such as Betty Friedan who was an American writer and Women’s right activist. In 1963 Friedan published “The Feminine Mystique” which was an exploration beyond Women’s traditional roles in society, and it quickly took off to create a social revolt by eliminating the myth that Women wanted to be housewives and homemakers, for Friedan the book marked the beginning of her significant role in the second wave of feminism. Friedan’s role in the overall movement was very much to inspire other women to get behind it and while doing so, Friedan also made sure that those she inspired, never resented men, for her it wasn’t about that “Man is not the enemy here, but the fellow …show more content…

Early on in the movement, activists were known for their aggressive approach in their protests. Protests against sexism in the media started as stickers that read “sexist” on sexist and offensive advertisements, then moved on to holding ‘sit ins’ at media outlets to the extremity of sabotaging newspaper offices. The feminists also held protests at beauty pageants with provocative signs claiming they objectified women, the main gain from their aggressive protests was the immense media coverage they received. With this new found media attention, they moved onto new issues of family life, education, sex and abortions, and begun campaigning for the legalisation of abortions, where they held public ‘speak outs’ where they allowed women to admit to illegal abortions and their reasoning behind it so it "brought abortion out of the closet where it had been hidden in secrecy and shame. It informed the public that most women were having abortions anyway.” Another big campaign topic was against sexual harassment, which was eventually defined as a violation of Women’t rights in 1980, and with this they were able to redefine ‘spousal abuse’ as crime rather than

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